Abstract

Tourism is the largest export sector and a major employer for most Pacific
Island countries including Fiji. Pacific tourism is highly vulnerable to
climate change impacts due to its close connections to the environment and
climate itself. This paper evaluates the conduciveness of Fiji’s policy
environment for tourism adaptation to climate change by analysing how its
policies (both explicit and implicit) in climate change, tourism,
environmental and disaster management address tourism adaptation types
(technical, business management, behavioural, policy, and research and
education) as well as characteristics of Small Island Developing States
(SIDS) that make them especially vulnerable to climate change. The paper
concludes that Fiji does provide a reasonably conducive policy
environment for its tourism to adapt but some important adaptation issues
still remain as policy gaps. Based on these identified policy gaps, the paper makes a number of recommendations for Fiji to further develop its tourism
adaptation policies and strategies.